Broken Superstar
by independent innovater
Summary: wrote this a couple of years ago. i was in like 6th/7th grade


"**The Broken Superstar"**

By Jessica Van Dusen

"How could you!?" she yelled with anger. "Not again Cal."

"But Emily, I…" Cal stammered.

"I don't want to hear it," Emily cried, "I just…I just can't take it anymore."

As she left the large deep blue room, she dropped the court sentence on the soft cream carpet. Cal was to go to court next month for smashing a local store with a bat. After four years of watching Cal in court, him coming home drunk and their family in the headlines of the weekly paper about how Cal's behavior must be harming them, Emily just couldn't take it. She had exploded.

Cal picked up the paper and went to the office with the yellow walls. He sat down at the desk and placed the paper on a large empty wooden drawer. As he sat there looking at the wooden black desk he noticed a new fresh envelope that hadn't been there before. He picked it up and went to open it but stopped. He saw Emily's name on it. He knew that Emily would never try to hide something from him, he hoped. But he was too scared that it might be letters from someone he didn't know about, so he chugged down two bottles of beer and opened it.

He stood up on the brown rug and read it, and read it, and read it some more. Then, out of no where he fainted. As the papers fell to the ground, a glimpse of light shown on the word divorce. After four long years, Emily had finally given up. She was divorcing him. Tomorrow.

Cal awoke to a bucket of cold water poured on him. He stood up, brushed past Emily and walked to the bathroom to dry off with wild glassy eyes glued to the floor. When he got to the tiny peach bathroom, he dried himself with the fuzziest towel he had. He looked in the oval mirror but all he saw was a round mouth, soft, wavy, fluffy hair that is a shiny charcoal black color, a lonely and desperate face, pearly white teeth and a straight, pointy-like nose on a middle-aged man.

Today was the day he was getting divorced. His pool blue eyes were all blurred up as the black limo drove off. All he could hear was the radio screaming 2001 as the driver desperately tried to change the station. Finally his vision wasn't blurred anymore and he saw a yellow and orange sign that read "Sunny Side California." As he stepped out of the limo all he could hear was, "Mr. Steinborn, are you upset about this?" and "I heard Emily was the one who wants the divorce. Is this true and if so how do you feel about it?" Many exhausting hours later, he was in bed.

Many days after the divorce he still hadn't heard from Emily and he didn't expect to. Lying in his water bed drunk, he realized he had to go to court, so he grabbed his gold keys and left. All Cal could hear was cars honking, police car sirens, the beat of this empty heart and empty bottles of beer lie clinking at the bottom of his car as the court house came into view. The court house seemed to be moving back and forth and so did the car. He tried to turn but…crashed! Cal was so confused and tired and didn't know what he was doing. He ran for this life, afraid of what Emily might think. Cal ran and ran for a few hours and finally crouched down behind a dumpster in a dark alley. After an hour of crouching, he thought it was safe so he grabbed some damp newspapers and spread them out on himself like a blanket. Everything slowly became a blur as his eye lids drooped.

When he awoke Cal expected to be in bed and what had just happened was a nightmare. But it wasn't. For breakfast Cal ate nothing and for lunch Cal ate nothing. He desperately wanted to eat at one of those soup kitchens he had heard about. But he couldn't, he knew he was a wanted man by now. As he left the safety of the smelly dumpster, he wandered the cold, wet dark alleys only to find an old homeless guy. Cal was so lonely and didn't care if he smelled, so he sat down and they talked.

The homeless guy said "You know, the dumpster has a lot of good food in it. Especially on Fridays when it gets emptied and fresh garbage is thrown in."

"Thanks," Cal muttered, "I guess."

"No prob!" the homeless guy cheered.

Cal picked up a piece of bread he found at the top of the pile of garbage. He scarfed it down only to realize that it was moldy. He knew very well that the piece of moldy bread was the best he would ever find because he had never been camping let alone been outside for more than two hours. Cal had never appreciated the outdoors like Emily had. He needed some water but could only see the filthy puddles beneath his feet. He fell to his knees and looked in the puddle. All he could see was his scared reflection which he had never seen before.

Cal was being eaten from the inside out. He couldn't find beer and he couldn't find Emily, not that she was looking for him. A month had passed and from eating moldy food and drinking mucky water to no alcoholic drinks and no Emily, Cal was about to burst.

Call screamed to the heavens at the top of his lungs and then bolted into a sprint. He ran until he was at the court house.

He ran inside and yelled "I can't take it anymore! You're killing me! Just give me my punishment and let me move on!"

Cal had got his wish. After a week of court, he was sentenced to three years of jail, one year of probation and six months in rehab. When Cal had finally gotten out, he bought a house in Florida, gave up acting, married Jane Brown and lived to tell the tale.


End file.
